The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
Many types of contests exist that involve prizes as awards to certain contestants. Sweepstakes and lotteries are examples of such contests. Different contests have different requirements regarding who can enter the contests and different criteria regarding which contestants will be selected to win a prize. Such differences may be attributed to the type of contest and/or the specific contest in question.
One drawback to current contests, such as lotteries, is that participation is limited due to the fact that a marketer of a contest needs to reach each potential participant individually. Advertising contests through billboards, television, newspapers, radio, and the Web have proven to be difficult in terms of achieving a significant amount of participation when considering the costs of the advertising.